David Blair became Chief Foreign Correspondent of the Daily Telegraph in November 2011. He previously worked for the paper as Diplomatic Editor, Africa Correspondent and Middle East Correspondent.

A frightening civil war? Right now, it doesn't feel like that in east Ukraine

Armed pro-Russian activists occupying a police station in the town of Slavyansk; but elsewhere in eastern Ukraine, it's business as usual. (Photo: AP)

It’s an essential rule of journalism that whenever you arrive in a tense and strife-torn city, everything actually looks pretty normal. I’m now in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine where Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian prime minister, thinks that a “frightening civil war” is underway. As I look out over the pleasant park beside Pushkin street, where people are strolling beneath a row of trees in beautiful spring weather, it doesn’t quite seem that way.

Eastern Ukraine is at the epicentre of a confrontation that pits Ukraine’s central government and all of the Western powers against the Kremlin. I don’t want to minimise that for a second, nor downplay the chances of a tragic escalation and more bloodshed. Everything could look very different tomorrow. But with that great caveat, it’s interesting to note how normal Donetsk seems, at least for now.

Earlier, I watched a group of pro-Russian radicals occupy City Hall. As various masked men armed with shotguns and a Kalashnikov assault rifle took control, the officials in the council chamber carried on with business as usual. They discussed the state of the municipal drains (very good, apparently) the electricity mains (also in good shape) and the city’s roads (even better, it seems, thanks to a £5 million repair programme).

In the park behind City Hall, people lazed in the sun and played with their children as the occupation took place a few yards away. They were fully aware that armed men were taking control of their city’s administration – and the police were not responding – but they seemed to view this development with calm indifference.

That could be read as passive support for the occupations. Equally, it could be that people here are so disillusioned they do not believe any ruler would make a difference to their lives.

Today, this city is supposedly an independent “People’s Republic”. Meanwhile, the Donetsk Opera House is about to stage “Aida”.